Pottery of Troy, Anatolia

This page is a summary of pottery published in works available to Commons or photographs submitted to Commons. Each pot depicted is both an individual item with its own material characteristics and is the representative of a type, of which many hundreds of instances may have been found. The summary thus represents thousands of pieces scattered throughout the world, some lost, but most likely to be found in Troy Museum.

Metal items are not included here.

The dates are as published or as specified with the picture. Any given type, however, may span more than one period (for details see the text included with the picture). The publisher may include comparisons to other world pottery, but without conclusions.

Troy I

Troy I was dated 3000 - 2500 by Blegen, 2920 - 2550 by Korfmann. EB 1

• 
  Incised sherds with linear incised decoration. Excavated Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79
• 
  Sherds, apparently from vase handles and rims. Excavated Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  A type of cup called depas (plural depata) Amphikypellon after the Greek, currently located in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
• 
  Troy I assemblage in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul. Most salient among the pottery is the grey, undecorated ware.

Troy II

Troy II was dated 2500 - 2200 by Blegen, 2920 - 2550 by Korfmann. EB 2.

• 
  Globular vases with lugs and chimney necks, one a tripod, the other a suspension vase, both with incised linear patterns, one with incised dots. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Amphorae with handles, lustrous black and lustrous dark red. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.

Troy III

Troy III was dated 2200 - 2050 by Blegen, 2250 - 2100 by Korfmann. EB 3.

• 
  Owl-faced amphora and cover (fits over top). Excavated Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79
• 
  Two globular vases with crown covers (on top), two handles and two wing-like projections each. Grey ware. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79
• 
  Three globular suspension vases, one with a stopper, with incised or raised decoration, one bearing an inscription. Holes in the lugs or neck for cords. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Pithoi, or storage jars, usually sunk into the ground. Excavated Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79
• 
  Owl-faced amphora with stopper. The three bumps under the rim are the beak and eyes. The three bumps on the body are not clear but are part of the type. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Owl-faced vases, one with handles, the other with wing-like lugs and a stopper. The motif raised on the body of the left vase is believed to be a writing character. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Lustrous light red tripod vase with Phrygian-cap cover and a furrowed, pierced surface. The second tripod vase is grey and has lugs and incised decoration. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Globular tripod vases (except for two) with holes for suspension, lugs, and minimal or no incised decoration. The first has a lid. Lustrous black and brown. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Undecorated pitchers, wheel-made, rough texture, but some polished with surface wash. Apparently these are different stages in the manufacture of a fine, polished ware. Instances found in Egypt and Cyprus. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Sherds with incised decoration: chevrons, crosses, bands, wavy lines. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Two-handled amphorae, one with nipple-like excrescence. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Lustrous brown wheel-made piriform jug characteristic of Troy III and Troy IV followed by a lustrous grey vase with tripod feet, band of incised lines, and hand-made cover. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Owl-faced pot with ears, protruding eyes, broken wing-handles, breasts, and a vulva. Color black, hand-made. Gold ornaments were found in this vase. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Tripod vases, plain openings, with specialized handles. Decoration is incised bands, some of which have interior motifs forming designs. Excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Small, plain, undecorated, ovoid, vessels without feet, termed bottles by the authors. The lugs have cord-holes. Presumably, use as bottles would imply stoppers, here missing. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Double-handled, yellow and brown, undecorated amphorae. Author suggests they were slung on the back with ropes to port water. Author added the cover shown on one. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Red amphorae of four handles. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Wheel-made and hand-made, polished and unpolished, undecorated plates, brown, red or yellow. The author attributes the lack of utensil marks as a lack of utensils during meals. They would have eaten by hand. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.

Troy IV

Troy IV was dated 2050 - 1900 by Blegen, 2100 - 1900 by Korfmann. EB 3.

• 
  Two stamnoi with handles for rope transport, excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79
• 
  Anomalous vases. Upper left: small vase with cover and lugs, decorative field totally filled with bands of herring-bone incisions. Lower left: incised decorations in vertical bands. Right: tripod with spiriform handles, separate attached small vase, and vertical/horizontal incised bands, punctures. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Two-handled vases. The top left is red with a cover not its own. The other has a rare feature: a conoidal neck. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Red, hand-made two-handled globular cup. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Sieve-like pitcher with stopper and cups. It is suggested the holes drain fluid from the contents. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Jugs with long upright necks supported by one handle. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Specialty pottery, use unknown: black jug on left with trefoil mouth and body-spout; yellow jug on right with a sieve-like bottom and a perforated enclosure over the mouth. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Long-necked oenechoae (jugs) with trefoil mouths supported by one handle, red, black, or grey, hand- or wheel-made, minimally decorated with incised bands. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Three anthropomorphic pots. Upper left is a yellow owl's head pot with wingiform handles, but on the body are two breasts with a vulva denoted by a cross. The same characteristics appear on the lower left., which is black, except ears are also present, and the vulva is hollowed out. On the right the red, owl-faced female bears a basin on the head (the orifice) and holds one in its arms. It has its own orifice. Four necklaces appear on the neck. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Oenochoae with trefoil pourers. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Grey and red tableware: cups, bowl, pitchers. The rough surface of the large pitcher may be a representation of feathers. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Red two-handled goblet, termed by the author depas amphikupellon, especially abundant in multiple periods. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  One-handled, wheel-made globular oenochoae with trefoil spouts. The first has breast-like projections. Colors are brown, red, grey. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.

Troy V

Troy V was dated 1900 - 1800 by Blegen, 1900 - 1700 by Korfmann. EB 3.

• 
  One-handled jugs. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Covered owl-faced vase with handle-wings and breasts on the body. The owl-face is on the cover also. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.

Troy VI

• 
  Pithos, excavated at Hisarlik 1871-72-73-78-79
• 
  Wheel-made grey ware: two-handled drinking cup and wide-mouth pitcher. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.
• 
  Multi-handle, wide-mouth pot decorated with incised bands. Two handles bear nipples. One-handled jug with wavy incised bands. Both black. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.

Troy VII

• 
  Sherds of painted and incised wheel-made ware. Designs are patterns: nets, spirals, circles, maeanders, some along incised bands. Colors are red, brown, or black on light yellow. One appears to have a stylized warrior (Mycenaean type) behind a circular shield. A horse is claimed for another. Excavated 1871-72-73-78-79.

General provenience

This section is for pots of unknown or unspecified dates.

• 
  A picture staged by the The Imperial and Royal War Press of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I. The pithos appears genuine. Whether it was found at that location is questionable. Despite the pick and shovel props, the uniformed human is a Turkish artilleryman from Battery No. 36 assigned to defend the Troad. The Press took a number of photos of this unit visiting Troy as Dörpfeld had left it.